Giving Up Bloated Government For Lent

"Do to others whatever you would have them do to you." (Matthew 7:12)

The opposite of the Golden Rule is selfishness, which is not caring about others, only about yourself. The Golden Rule represents love. Love Himself gave it to us.

Thomas Aquinas defined love as "to will the good of the other."

Marriage, done well, should be a perfect example of love. Another great example of love is the parent who stays up all night with a child, knowing he'll only get three or four hours of sleep because he has to be up early for work, but does it patiently anyway. He's concerned for the child all day and can't wait to get home to see him or her.

That is love.

Generally speaking, these examples are not controversial because they represent our personal lives. We can all relate to them. But we tend to run into trouble with significant societal issues. Who is right and wrong on moral questions that affect many people? What groups do we see as victims or oppressors? Whose side are you on, man?!!!

Going to church shouldn't be controversial, but I began my Lenten journey a few days ago by accidentally driving into a protesting mob. I'm not claiming I got caught in the middle of a mob because I attend church — but the mob didn't care where I was going. Those people only cared that they could disrupt my life and as many other people's lives as possible.

It could have been an emergency for me. I could have been rushing to a dying parent's bedside, to my child who'd been hit by a car, or to any other place or event that was important to me. In my case, it wasn't life or death, but as a lector at church, I had to be there in about 15 minutes to deliver the second reading that day.

Entering and Exiting the Mob

Running slightly late, I jumped in my car and tried to quickly get out of the parking lot and onto the street. Groups of people walked casually in front of my car, not caring that I needed to get by. I honked my horn, but they wouldn't move out of the way. Hordes of people strolled through the parking lot, blocking traffic. Finally, I got to the exit and took a right without looking down the street first. Unfortunately, that meant I quickly drove into the gathering point — Ground Zero for the protest.

Surrounded by people who would not move an inch, they were entirely deaf to my horn blasting — except for one guy who turned around and glared at me for a few seconds. So I quickly executed a three-point turn and headed in the opposite direction, down a divided road on the wrong side of the center median. In the moment, I believed I had no other way out.

A few hundred yards down the street, the median gave way, and I swung onto the right side of the street. No traffic was heading toward me because the cars had stopped and were turning down side streets or making U-turns so they wouldn't get stuck the way I had been. I only had to dodge everyone walking on the street toward the protest. No one touched my car, and no one verbally threatened me. I got to church on time.

It's DOGE's Fault

At church, I discovered why all those people had gathered to protest in front of the Channel Islands National Park Headquarters.

I told the other lector what happened to me and how I almost didn't make it on time, but I got no sympathy. Instead, she blurted out sternly, "Ten people lost their jobs down there!" I was still slightly shaken and thought I had a righteous cause. Those people in the mob didn't care about me, right? But no, the other lector was angry because I didn't care about them!

I gently replied, "Yeah, nice people." She looked puzzled, but seemed to get angrier — and a little sad, too.

It made me think, though. It's tough to lose your job. Should I have more sympathy? There will be many people losing their jobs. According to the Associated Press, more than 1,000 job cuts are coming for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration alone. The U.S. Department of Education may soon be cutting fully 50% of its workforce as well - if President Donald Trump doesn't dismantle it completely first.

More cuts are coming across the board, and other protests are breaking out (they are probably very organized) nationally against Trump's policies. In New York, there are protests for a man who's being deported for leading campus protests in support of Hamas, a designated terrorist group. We even saw protests from the Democrats during Trump's recent address to the joint session of Congress, with one member escorted out for his behavior. Democrat members held up signs throughout, with one saying, "Musk Steals."

Applying the Golden Rule to Government Spending?

For me, the question becomes whether and how I am practicing the Golden Rule. The national debt is running higher each moment. Doesn't it affect others, including our children (future generations) and ourselves? Of course it does! It is now more than $36 trillion, apart from a coming shortfall in entitlement programs and Social Security. So who is selfish: those who don't care if they burden future generations or those who want a balanced budget?

A government job is not a right, but a privilege. Business owners know that people are your highest expense if they are not producing more value than they destroy (in other words, what you pay them). And government employees don't create value for sale. They administer bureaucracies that are debatable at best. In many cases, they shouldn't exist at all!

In the last presidential election, the people (the government employees' bosses) just hired new management (Donald Trump) who promised to end wasteful government spending by installing the Department of Government Efficiency, with Elon Musk in charge.

It will be tough for all those former bureaucrats to find new jobs, but no harder for them than it has been for anyone else. Now is their chance to get out of government and add value for others in the economy. If you are a scientist who lost his job, go to work for a private laboratory. You might make even more money. (I don't mean this coldly.) All the bureaucrats may genuinely find better opportunities in the real world!

It seems to me there is a pattern here: All the protestors want what they want at others' expense. But genuine caring comes with sacrifice. I dare say, let's give up some bloated government for Lent!

James Malloy is the author of Economic Clarity or Political Confusion: The Classical Cure for Keynesian Debt & Deficits. He has a B.S. in business economics and has been an active licensed California mortgage and real estate broker for twenty years. Contact him at econclarity.com.

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